After its discovery, one of the most prolific uses of glass in construction was for displaying exotic plants brought back from Roman adventuring.  Then came the Crystal Palace, in the 1850’s.  Then came skyscrapers, dripping with glass.

Urban greenhouses, proposed by CITYCROPS, require two paradigm shifts for design.  The first is to stack grow-floors on top of each other.  Stacking floors is not a stretch for city centers but covering grow-space is.  And if you have been in any office building, a dozen stories up, you have likely seen a sad looking potted plant, and you probably hoped there wasn’t black mold.

Paradigm shift two is:  Plants are the number one user group, not people.  Plants have needs, different from ours.  The design process requires you to determine what those are to achieve maximum crop production.  Regarding the need for sunshine, shift one is not in conflict with shift two if you understand the ‘unspoken’ paradigm shift ‘three’ which is to design for ecological sustainability.  (Thank you, Isaac Asimov.)

Simplicity is a means to achieving sustainability and, I would argue, conveyor systems and an over-reliance on electric lights is not ’simple’.  But supplemental lighting,  with a shallow, long floor-plate and lots of sunlight diffusing glass, are.  It’s fortunate that plants don’t need sunglasses.